An Eruptive Situation
by Uncle Charlie
Summary: Why are Sapphire and Steel standing on the brink of an erupting volcano.  They don't have a clue.  Warnings - het, that means sex, folks!  Adults only please


Steel held a leaf in his hands, staring at it, wishing, not for the first time, that he could pull the history of an item from it as his partner could. He gave her a sidelong glance, but Sapphire was busy examining a low bush, the skirt of her favorite dress tucked neatly about her knees.

"Where are we, Sapphire?" He looked as out of place in his three piece suit as he felt. This was not an environment he was particularly at ease in. Cities, towns, even small villages – these places he understood. Nature - he did not.

"An island in the chain of Hawaiian Islands called Hawaii. It is also called the Big Island for it contains more mass than all the others put together." She pulled a bright red flower towards her face, her eyes closed in delight at the softness of its petals.

"And why?" He kept his tone purposefully neutral, as neutral as the color of his suit.

"Some sort of event is about to occur. We are here to ensure that it does. Other than that, I know nothing more than you. They were very vague as to our purpose here."

"Huh, hardly our sort of assignment, is it?" Steel rolled the leaf between his fingers and released it, not able to detect anything from it or its scent. As much as he longed to crush it into nothingness, he didn't. Sapphire wouldn't like it and, these days, he was working very hard to not displease her.

"What do you mean?" Sapphire, on the other hand, seemed to relish the life that surrounded them. Bird calls cluttered the air, each one seeming to try to out-sing the other. Flowers bloomed and insects went about their business and she stood enveloped in it and was comforted. She gently caressed the fronds of a fern as she stood.

He ignored her question. He was good at that. "What day is it?"

"November 12, 1959." The earth trembled beneath his feet and he looked down, frowning, even as his arms stretched out for balance. "That is nothing more than a normal earthquake you are feeling, Steel. The area has been plagued with them since August 14 of this year."

"Why?"

"We are standing on the slopes of a very active volcano. Magma is just a few miles beneath the surface and we are, in fact, standing on ancient lava. This entire island was formed by a series of volcanoes. I suspect an eruption is imminent."

"An eruption? Like Vesuvius?" Steel felt a small twist of anxiety stir. He remembered that assignment with no little fondness. Jet had not exactly been a benefit to its completion, more of a hindrance.

"Vesuvius is a pyroclastic volcano, it exploded. These are a different sort; the scientists refer to the Hawaiian volcanoes as shield; the lava oozes out and spreads slowly. They are not as destructive as the others."

_Why am I not comforted by that?_ Steel mentally asked.

_And why am I not surprised? You are uneasy here._

_Yes. _ He didn't lie. Not that he couldn't, but he didn't feel the need. Sapphire knew he was far from insecure. And she would also pick up on his discomfort, something he couldn't mask from her.

_Why?_

_I… I don't know. There is something else at play here._ He looked up and down the small path they stood upon. "Where does this lead?"

"It is a circular path. To the East, the path continues around the lip of the Kilauea Crater. To the west, it leads back to the lodge and the observation post." _That is our destination, Steel._

_Then why are we here?_

_We need to be seen arriving. _ She reached out to him and he felt his clothes changed, morphing into something more time appropriate. He glanced down at his apparel and frowned.

_What are you playing at, Sapphire?_

Gone was his grey suit, replaced by a pair of lightweight blue pants and a shirt with a blue background and lime green splotches of color. Her soft blue dress had been replaced one of vivid red with equally vivid splashes of color.

_It's called Aloha wear and it's what tourists wear here._

_I don't think so. Change it or I will._

Sighing, she closed her eyes and the outfit shifted into a white poplin pants and a matching jacket. The shirt, open at the neck was now a muted steel blue. She sighed and shook her head slowly. "I preferred the other."

"I didn't." He took a step and made a face. The path was level, why wasn't he?

"There is a lift in your left shoe of approximately 0.4985 inches. The heel of your right shoe has been lowered the same amount."

"Why?"

"The persona you have been assigned limps," she explained. Her blonde hair was piled high upon her head in a complex series of twists and tucks. He didn't need a mirror to know his hair was different as well, short and combed back off his forehead from the way it felt. "I don't know why."

_Someone's coming._

Sapphire glanced over her shoulder as a young woman approached. She was of obvious Hawaiian descent; her skin was a soft brown, smooth and unblemished. Her hair was thick and black, with a wreath of red blossoms about her head. She wore a simple shift of brilliant reds, yellows, and oranges, splashes of color. A white dog trotted obediently behind her. She slowed as she spotted them, her eyes studying first Steel, then her and then back to Steel.

"Hello," Sapphire said, smiling. "How do you do?"

She simply stared at Sapphire, her eyes darkening, if such a thing was possible. "Unsettled," she murmured, her gaze returning again to Steel. Then she was gone, brushing past them and disappearing around a tree choked bend in the path.

"That was of little consequence," Sapphire murmured, then stopped when she realized Steel was staring after the young woman.

_Steel?_

_Yes?_

_Are you all right?_

_Why wouldn't I be? _ Cold, hard, vintage Steel.

_No reason, I thought…_

_What?_

_Nothing._

#####

They were walking down the hallway to their room when they saw her the next time. She moved with an ease and grace of a royal, yet she carried an armful of flowers.

_One of the employees. That makes sense._, Sapphire thought and Steel twisted his head away from the young woman and back to her.

_Why would that make sense?"_

_To have seen her on the trail and now here. She was gathering greenery._

As the young woman passed, a fern frond dropped and Steel stooped to retrieve it. He saw Sapphire's eyes widen at his action and he was unable to explain why he'd done such a thing. Niceties were her business, not his.

He offered it to her and she smiled, reaching for it. As she took it, their fingers touched and Steel mentally gasped as their eyes met. He wasn't used to feeling such heat, not from one of these humans.

_Steel? Are you all right, Steel?_

He blinked and the young woman's eyes lowered.

"_Mahalo,"_ she murmured and hurried away, casting one last look over her shoulder at them, at him.

"Steel?" Sapphire tried the verbal approach this time.

"Hmm?"

"What's gotten into you?"

That was a very good question and one that he should have an answer for. But he didn't. There was something about that human and he wasn't quite sure how he felt about it.

#####

Steel stared up at the bamboo lined ceiling and replayed the day in his head. He didn't require sleep or food, nor did any of his fellow agents, but some, like Sapphire went through the motions. They felt it put them more in tune with the humans. His job was not to be in tune with them, rather save them from their own folly.

He rolled his head to one side and stared at her profile, soft with sleep. She really was a gift to him, loving and generous; she grounded him in a way no other Element had been able to. And yet, the young woman's face kept drifting back to him.

This was a waste of time. He got to his feet and walked to a shuttered window, swaying slightly as another earthquake rolled through. There had been several during dinner and their evening, spent with others. Sapphire engaged them in conversation and Steel listened, interjecting questions when he had one. Mostly he spent the time scanning the room, looking, searching for… her.

Sapphire had noticed his restlessness and eventually suggested they retire. She peppered him with questions that he had no answers for. In turn, he fairly accused her of hiding their assignment from him. They reached an impasse, both frustrated and convinced the other knew more than he or she was letting on. It was an uncomfortable situation.

He finally made a peace offering by agreeing to, at least, lie beside her until she fell asleep. It was a waste of time, but he did it anyway.

Steel pulled on his pants and shirt and walked barefoot into the hall. The lodge was quiet now. All the guests had long surrendered to sleep. He descended the staircase, exchanged a nod with the sleepy night clerk and proceeded into the sitting room.

A fire flickered in the fireplace, one that was rumored to never have gone out once being set back in the 1800's. He doubted that, but humans loved such stories.

Steel sat on the couch and stared into the flames. As a rule, he didn't care much for hot. Cold was more to his liking. He could manipulate it and bend it to his will. Heat was another matter altogether.

"It's not really, you know."

The voice surprised Steel and he sat back, unaware that he'd been leaning forward towards the fire. He looked and the young woman stood there. She was holding a bottle of some clear liquid on one hand and caressing the head of her white dog with the other.

"It's not really what?"

"Mystical, hidden." She set the bottle down and walked towards the fire. A log shifted and the fire blazed, yet she merely smiled. "It burns in us all. It makes and reshapes us." The fire revealed her silhouette through the shift she wore, slender and sensual.

"Who are you?" Steel tried to refocus his thoughts. It was becoming difficult.

"I go by many names, you may call me Tutu." She turned back to him. "It's a form of endearment."

She held out a hand to him and he rose, almost without wanting to.

_Sapphire…_ he thought.

"She doesn't see you as I see you. She doesn't need you the way I need you."

It didn't occur to him to question her motives, it didn't even occur to him to fight. It was if she'd taken his will along with the rest of him.

Like an obedient child, he let her lead him from the lodge, down a short path to a hut. Inside on a grass woven mat, he sat, watching her as she struggled with the buttons of his shirt. Then they seemed to melt way and he shrugged the garment from his shoulders. Her touch was hot and he cooled his core to compensate.

"You are not like the others."

"No," he hissed as she touched her lips to his neck, burning his flesh. It sent a jolt, not to his groin, which he had anticipated, but seemingly to his very cells.

Their love making took on a detached edge to it; he was only half aware of his pants being taken from him and of her mounting him. He'd always been an active participant with Sapphire and had found their infrequent couplings pleasurable. There was nothing pleasurable about this. Holding Tutu was like trying to embrace pure heat and the farther he pulled into himself, the more the flames licked at him. The more walls he threw up, the faster they fell.

His self preservation instinct kicked in and he felt his body temperature plummeting. Without Lead to shield him, it was going to take forever to warm up again… normally, but not this time. Tutu was driven and Steel had nowhere to hide. The more she climaxed, the more driven she seemed to become. Steel tried to retreat, tried to rally and disengage, but even his ability to transport was gone.

Worse, he tried calling out, to Sapphire, to Lead, even to Silver, but he felt as if a bubble had developed around his brain, shutting it off to everyone except himself. In all his existence, Steel had never felt so alone.

All the while Tutu was chanting,

_E Pele e Pele ka`uka`ulï ana  
E Pele e Pele hua`ina hua`ina  
E Pele e Pele `oni luna `oni luna  
E Pele e Pele `oni lalo `oni lalo  
E Pele e Pele a`o kuli pe`e nui  
Ha`ina ka inoa no Pele la ea  
Eala eala ea, a i e a  
He inoa no Pele_

Steel fought, terrified of the uncertainty of the event, but at last even he couldn't resist any longer and he matched her thrusts with those of his own, those that would have rented a human woman from stem to stern, yet she took them and demanded more from him.

When Steel finally climaxed, he felt a searing racing through his body, a pain and pleasure he'd never experienced before, quite likely would never again for he was sure he was dead now, turned inside out.

Tutu let him fall back limply onto the smoldering mat and smiled down at him. "_He inoa no Pele," _she whispered and he felt darkness closing around him even as his central core was cooling back to a tolerable level. Then heat started scorching him again.

####

_Steel?_

The voice was familiar and yet he couldn't place it immediately. He managed to crack one eye open. He was still lying on the grass mat, still staring up at the woven palm frond ceiling. He felt so unusual, like he'd been taken apart and put back together, but with one or two parts left out.

The voice came again, a bit more forcefully. _Steel? _

This time he found the memory he needed to match the voice with the face. "Here." His voice was odd sounding, his throat raw and sore, as if he'd been screaming for a very long time. He rolled to his side and forced himself up into a sitting position.

"Stee…?" Sapphire stooped over to walk into the hut, saw him and immediately turned, embarrassed.

He glanced down, not surprised that he was still naked. He closed his eyes and thought for a moment. Nothing… that was… odd.

"Sapphire, I hate to ask this…"

Instantly he felt clothes envelop him. "Thank you." His mental abilities seemed to be intact, but his ability to command them slow to return, as if they'd been shut off and were taking time to start up again.

"Steel, what happened?" She came to kneel beside him. "You look… different." She leaned forward. "You smell different." She touched her lips to his forehead, kissing it gently. She pulled back and delicately licked her lips. "You even taste different."

"Not a coincidence, I fear." He glanced at the shirt he wore and transfigured it into something more muted. "That's better." He cleared his throat and blinked his eyes, trying to sort out reality from fantasy, not that he was ever given to any form of imagination.

"Let me see?" Sapphire asked. Steel frowned. That was different; usually there was total openness between them, but now, for one reason or another, Sapphire felt pressured to ask first. He wasn't sure he liked this.

He nodded and smiled at the coolness of her hand on his face, so familiar and comforting.

_I'm glad._

_Of what? _At least that function was finally back on line.

_That you find my touch comforting. _He felt her moving through his mind, but he forced himself to be detached, not involved, lest he lose control again as the memories were reawakened.

"You had sex with her? A human?"

"Sex, yes. With a human, I think not." Steel got to his feet and glanced down at the mat which he'd risen from. His form was burned into the grass.

"I would agree. And there's something else."

"More good news. What is it?"

Sapphire touched his neck, touched the mark there. "You've changed."

"I'm sorry, changed in what way?"

"Down to the molecular level." Sapphire's eyes glowed blue as she delved further. "Your carbon content has increased…"

"My carbon… content?"

"It's what's makes you you."

"I know that part, but what you do mean it's changed?"

"You've gone from having a carbon content of .57% to almost a two percent."

"What does that mean?"

"It means you're stronger, more resilient than before. I believe the process is called Marquenching."

"That is…" He floundered. He knew this and yet he couldn't…

Sapphire stroked down his neck to his shoulder, obviously sensing his discomfort. "It is a process that is used to temper steel to its ultimate strength. It is an extended process of heating and cooling, each time increasing the ductility and strength of the steel. Anymore and you'd be cast iron."

"All that from one night?"

"Steel, you've been gone for over thirty hours. I was nearly ready to call for help."

Steel took a staggering step, halted and squared his shoulders. With deliberate care, he walked out of the small hut, blinking as he stood in the hazy sunlight. "What's that smell?"

"It's sulfur. The volcano has become quite active in the last twenty four hours." Sapphire walked up behind him and rested her cheek on his back. "You smell the same way."

Steel brought his arm to his nose, inhaling. She was right. "Sapphire, what happened to me?"

"I don't know, but I strongly suspect that was no ordinary woman you had intercourse with."

"Of that I have no doubt, but why?"

"Tell me what you remember."

"You saw…"

"The events as they unfolded, but nothing more. You were closed to me in that respect."

"I was closed to me," Steel admitted softly, as if afraid to say it out loud. "I was… cut off, Sapphire, truly alone for the first time. It was… unsettling and not very enjoyable."

"You always enjoyed it in the past."

"That was because it was with someone I wanted to be with, not someone forcing themselves upon me. It was rather like being with Jet, but without the dark touches."

A smile played at the corners of Sapphire's mouth. "I'll take that as compliment then."

He turned back and smiled, cupping one of her cheeks with a purposefully gentle hand. He was feeling strong now, stronger than he ever had in the past. "Do."

She placed her hand over his and smiled at him. Then she frowned and gasped as she was roughly pushed aside.

"Sapphire!" Steel started towards his fallen companion and a white dog blocked his path. He spun and Tutu was standing there. "Leave her alone!"

Tutu smiled at him. "She will be wise to remember her place. No one touches my man."

"I'm not yours," Steel snapped and glared at the dog.

"You bear my mark."

Steel brought his hand to his neck and willed the mark away.

Tutu gasped when he removed his hand. "You have no right."

"You have no right. I don't know who you are, but this ends now." He walked past the growling dog and gathered Sapphire up.

"Thank you," she murmured and brushed her dress off.

Tutu glared at them, her entire countenance changing, taking on the look of an older woman, with flame colored hair and fiery eyes.

"I am Pele! I am a goddess."

Steel pushed Sapphire behind him protectively. "I am unimpressed."

With a scream, the woman burst into flames and Steel pushed Sapphire. "Go, get away."

"What about you?" She grabbed his arm, entreating him.

"I'm going to make a point." He kissed her hand and gave her another shove. _I'll be all right, Sapphire._

_Be careful. _ And she was gone.

He turned back and Tutu was as she had been before, young and beautiful. "You changed your mind."

"No, I want to know what you did to me."

"I loved you."

"No, try again. What you did to me in no way resembles love." He purposefully kept his distance from her. The ground rumbled beneath his feet and the air grew thick.

"And what do you know of it? I can offer you power, strength, a world to rule."

"I have as much power and strength as I need and no use for a world."

"You will succumb."

"No."

"On your knees." Her eyes popped and snapped with anger as smoke curled off her.

"No."

"You will submit to me or feel my wrath."

"Or what? You'll burst into flames again? Between you and me, you need a new parlor trick. That one is starting to sag around the edges."

"How dare you speaking to me like that?" Tutu exploded into flames and Steel flung his arms up in front of his face to protect it and staggered back a step.

The ground bucked and heaved beneath his feet and he struggled to stay upright. Around him, the air was hot and fires were raging, fiery fingers plucking at his clothes and skin.

Then, just as suddenly it was gone and the night was cool again. Steel staggered back a step and startled as he bumped into something and sighed at the sight of his partner.

"Where are we?"

"The other side of the crater, some place safe." Sapphire gestured to the horizon. The sky was blood red with fire. Even from here he could smell the sulfur and feel the heat.

"What happened?"

Sapphire's eyes glowed blue as she recited, "On November 19th, 1959, there was a massive explosion at the site of the Kilauea-iki crater. The lava fountain, reaching as high as 350 meters, blasted through the wall of the crater and totally devastated an ohia forest. There was never an event recorded before or after by which the volcano exploded in a seemingly pyroclastic event." Her eyes returned to normal and she smiled. "Apparently one experience with you was enough to turn her off to bedding Elementals, although she continued to erupt for nearly a month afterward."

"A woman spurned," Steel muttered, replacing his singed clothes with fresh ones. A _ting_ went off in his head. It was the notice that the assignment had been completed to Their satisfaction. All was at it should be in the eyes of his superiors. _What did we accomplish here, Sapphire?_

_I'm still not exactly sure what our assignment was, but it apparently is over._

The ground rumbled and a huge fountain of lava exploded up into the air and just for a moment, he could see Tutu in the flames. She was looking for him. _We'd best be off before she finds me again._

_ ####_

There was never very much lag time between assignments. They, being who they were, needed little time to recuperate.

_Elements stuffed in human form._ Steel sat and stared at his hand. It looked no different than before, but it felt as if he was wearing a glove. He could register touching something, but nothing more. It was as it had been when he'd first been recruited and converted into this form.

_Steel?_

His head jerked at Sapphire's voice. _ Here_. He thought his location and a few minutes later Sapphire appeared.

_I wondered where you'd gotten to._ She settled down beside him. "There's been some interesting talk."

He snorted. "Somehow, I doubt that."

Sapphire smiled and rested a long-fingered hand on his thigh. Surprised, he glanced up at her. That he was most definitely feeling. "I think you will definitely find this interesting. They're afraid."

"Who?"

"Them."

"You're joking. They're not afraid of anything."

"They are of this. They say a war is coming, one that will rip apart time and space if it's permitted to occur." She squeezed his leg. "The word is that They have started engineering the next phase of Elemental - one that can confront the enemy with a surety of winning."

"There are no sureties in war, only victims," Steel snapped. His mind went back to Tully, to the flyer, the soldiers… "Why are you telling me this?"

"They were afraid to take the conventional means to convert one of us. That would mean taking the Element back to its basic form and re-forging it. The process would, in essence, produce Their Super Elemental as Silver had nicknamed them, but it would rob the Element of all previous knowledge and experience. That was unacceptable. They decided to try by more organic means." She squeezed his leg again.

Steel's head snapped around. "You don't mean…?"

"You are an army of one, for the moment. Now They will study and watch you to see the results. If They like the results, more Elements will be converted by other methods, one would imagine, as many would never be able to tolerate what you experienced."

He should be furious. He should have stood and raged. That's what he would have done a few days ago, but now instinctively he knew that would have a bad ending for him. Instead, he sat quietly and worked on keeping his anger locked away until he needed it.

Sapphire repositioned her hand to his arm, compassion making her features soft as she moved even closer to him. "Tell me what you are feeling."

"You can't read…?"

"No, it's as if you've gone slightly out of sync with me, like a radio signal. At times, you are as clear as ever, but then something shifts and you are gone."

"I feel…" He sighed and looked again at his hand before clasping it into a fist. "Nothing… that's part of the problem."

Sapphire stroked his cheek and he turned instinctively, not drawing away as their lips met. He watched her through slitted eyes until she pulled away. "You didn't feel that?"

"I did." He brought her head closer so that he could initiate the kiss this time, prolonging it, feeling a tingling shooting through his body. It wasn't quite Tutu's flame, but something… He pulled reluctantly away, stroking her hair. "Perhaps it would be better to take this some place more private."

####

He felt Sapphire climaxing, both physically and mentally gasping and throbbing, as he held her. It was the trigger he needed and he tilted his head back, mouth open in a voiceless cry. Sapphire cried out, her mind a jumble of images and emotions, his images and emotions. There was no way she could escape his embrace, not until he was ready to release her and eventually she stilled. Her thoughts grew quiet as her body calmed to his touch.

_Are you all right? _He shifted off her and stroked her hair with one hand as his thoughts tumbled free from hers.

_What just happened?_ She sounded almost scared.

The question came through garbled to him. _I don't understand. You didn't want… this?_

_I did, but I feel… odd, disjointed in a way._ She frowned. "It's quite disquieting really."

Steel reached out and pulled her over onto him. Limbs entwined, their minds merged easily. After a moment, her thoughts retreated and he followed, easily and without difficulty. That had never happened before.

"It appears that I, or more correctly, we are now an army of two."

"What do you mean?"

"Your chemical makeup appears to carrying elements of enriched carbon now, along with your base of corundum."

"You are not… Steel, tell me you are joking with me."

"I never joke."

"I wonder if this is how they are proposing the advancement of their Super Elements."

"They would be well to choose other options." Easily he repositioned her so that he slid again into her. "I, for one, had no intention of being with anyone, except you."

_Only me?_

_Only you._ Their thought started to tangle around each other's and Steel decided he did mind being an army of one, not now that he had equitable companionship.


End file.
